Man cannot live by animal cracker alone.
Kids either. This goes for potato chips, chocolate, junk-food cereal and fast food. Between soccer matches and practice and school and Target runs, it’s easy to hit a drive-thru or snack up at the QT for a jumbo soda and a donut.
When you’re a stellar soccer girl (or her dad), though, it’s the healthier snacks that’ll keep you fueled.
With help from nuts.com, I let the girls put together their own fantasy snack pack to keep in their soccer bags. Preferably, in a pouch on the other end from their shin guards. There’s a ton of goodness on this site. And a little bit of heaven.
“Dad!” Grace said, kind of starry-eyed. “Have you ever had chocolate-covered sunflower seeds?”
Only in my dreams, kid. Only in my dreams. When you’re a stellar soccer girl (or her dad), though, it’s the healthier snacks that’ll keep you fueled.
Elise: Carbin’ up to steal your souls
I asked the goalkeeper among us to choose three snacks. She listed 10, and said she intended to edit down to three. But can you really choose between yogurt trail mix and hickory beef jerky?
Her list:
- Chocolate monkey trail mix
- Yogurt trail mix
- Chex Mix
- BBQ peanuts
- Honey mustard pretzels
- Hickory beef jerky
- Sweet & spicy beef jerky
- Chocolate covered pretzels
- Yogurt covered pretzels
- Buffalo pretzel pieces
In her words:
I want these snacks because they’re full of protein and carbs, great for a pre-game snack. They’ll keep me energized throughout the game.
Marie: Feed the midfielder well
The taller midfielder in the bunch went a little more candy-savvy with her picks. Now a freshman in high school, her mix looks a little like what dad used to smuggle into the movies in his cargo pants.
Her list
- Chocolate covered pretzels
- Yogurt covered pretzels
- Sour Patch Kids
- Red Swedish Fish
- Gummy worms
- Milk Duds
- Malted milk balls
- Chocolate covered banana chips
- Sesame crunch
- Organic dry roasted sunflower seeds
In her words
I picked what tastes good.
(She’s an efficiency of words, that girl. Marie’s peanut allergy limits her snacking – so to find a Marie-safe option tends to be pretty awesome.)
Grace: She does it all – and eats it all, too
Grace still moves between offense and defense, so her snacks show a little versatility, too. She also found a link on nuts.com to create your own trail mix. Who can resist that?
- Sweet & spicy beef jerky
- Greek yogurt pretzels
- Home-style roasted sunflower seeds
- Dry roasted cashews
Camdyn’s Wow Mix
- Roasted cashews
- Roasted pistachios
- Peanut M&Ms
- Candy corn
- Sour Patch kids
- Dry roasted sunflower seeds
In her words
I liked all these snacks, and some are healthy.
What would you and your kids pick? Check out nuts.com!
Just a dad ... 
There’s some good choices there. Mine would be roasted pistachio nuts, dry roasted cashew nuts, raw walnuts, sour patch kids and definitely peanut M&Ms 🙂
Glad you liked them, Lyn. That’s a good mix you mixed up there, too. I’d take a handful.
I am so similar to Marie here on this and now I wish I had Swedish Fish in my house!! 😉
I’d love a huge resealable bag of them on my desk for emergency (or non-emergency) use.
I miss snacks like these. I would have to pick all nuts and a piece of fruit.
Grown-ups should get good snacks too, Rhonda. Maybe a nuts/dried fruit trail mix, even.
As an aging individual Mate I go for something that isn’t too heavy to carry from the kitchen to the TV room. Seriously though, I go for the dried fruits (gotta think of the old bowel) mixed nuts, wasabe beans (hot, hot, hot) and anything else that’s light and easy. The girls seem to have it all down pat though.
That’s a strong consideration, mate. Wasabe means? I’d not have guessed that, amigo. They’re too hot for me.
The girls are champion snackers. Not sure where that comes from.
One has to think ahead when it comes to snacking Mate. Wasabe is all about bringing tears to your eyes. I think genetics may play a big part in the girls snacking ability.
My legacy lives on, then, mate.
yep, that’s the beauty of genetics Mate.
pecans, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, dried apricots.
I bet Matt Stafford would like that mix too, Beth.
Currently the kids would pick trail mix…and by trail mix I mean picking out and eating the M&M’s.
Don’t you just love that, Rebecca? And by love that, I mean you don’t want to let the kids anywhere near your trail mix. And they wonder why we hide food from them.
We do, don’t we?
I think I am on Team Marie because of Swedish Fish and Sesame Crunch, but Grace’s list fits more into what I like in general (salty/crunchy vs. all sweet). Sunflower seeds, candy-covered and not, are always a welcome option.
Matt would probably say beef jerky, Cheez-Its, pistachios, some spicy-Cajun snack mix he found at Walgreen’s, and banana chips.
Swedish Fish – that’s a strong addition, isn’t it? I was amazed at how thorough Grace compiled her Wow Mix. Wow, you know?
I feel like we need to make some of these a reality. Matt’s mix sounds pretty good, too.
Bonus for the banana chips.
Fun snacks! Prime just started soccer, so it’ll be fun to see what snacks my picky little water will like. So far apple juice was a win while fruit roll ups got the glare of “let Bee eat that. I’m not touching that!”
Bee loves that glare. 🙂
Thanks Kim! Snacks are No. 1 for when the kids first start out, and I’m not even kidding. And with snacks comes glares. Lots of them!
Snacking is my middle name! That was a lie. Eden is my middle name.
I love cheese sticks, pistachios, apples and peanut butter, a million other things..
Making your own trail mix is awesome.
Eden is Swahili for snacking, I think. Isn’t it? Cheese sticks rock. Is that the same as string cheese?
Some people even have a trail mix named after them.
cheese sticks, crackers, mix nuts and some candy corn. 🙂
I could use a fist full of that, Tiffany.
The chocolate and yogurt covered pretzels sounds good right now….
Just a good-sized bowl right next to the keyboard. Imagine what we could get done, Katy.
Chocolate covered sunflower seeds–is that really a thing?! This post made me all kinds of hungry… but I feel like the theme is yogurt covered pretzels. I think that’s a good, healthy snack. I tend to favor sweet and salty, personally, like kettle corn. Mmmmm…
I didn’t know they were a thing until the girls read it to me, Charlotte. Yogurt covered pretzels make life tough for those not covered in yogurt.
Yogurt covered pretzels have dairy and grains, which I think are two food groups. Salt might be the other.
Kettle corn, it turns out, makes life tough for popcorn that isn’t kettle corn.
I don’t even like gummies, but I LOVE ME some Swedish fish…
Swedish fish make gummies look like brussel sprouts.
I’m more of a trail mix and jerky kinda gal. Also, I just ate breakfast, but I’m feeling kind of peckish for some reason!
Trail mix and jerky – that has to say something about you, Rabia. One, you’re kind of like my girls.
I never have to know a reason to embrace a peckish feeling.
Love how you introduced your girls by personality, soccer game position and snack choice!
What does the coach like if pizza is not an option?
My hockey guy doesn’t like nuts except if they are covered in caramel and chocolate (Toffifee, do you guys have them in the U.S.?) but he may go for dried mango slices and the like.
Thanks Tamara – we had a lot of fun with this one. I’m huge on sunflower seeds, but also like Swedish fish and banana chips.
Americans are Toffiffee-free, as far as I can tell, but we should do something about that. I bet C could make a kick-ass trail mix.